CIA bankroll of Pakistan spies revealed

Gerg Miller: 16/11/09

The CIA has funnelled hundreds of millions of dollars to Pakistan’s intelligence service since the September 11, 2001, attacks, accounting for one-third of the foreign spy agency’s annual budget, according to current and former US officials. Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency had also collected tens of millions of dollars through a classified CIA program that paid for the capture or killing of wanted militants, a clandestine counterpart to the rewards publicly offered by the State Department, officials said. US officials often tout US-Pakistani intelligence co-operation. But the extent of the financial underpinnings of that relationship has never been publicly disclosed. The CIA payments are a hidden stream in a much broader financial flow; the US has given Pakistan more than $US15 billion ($A16 billion) over the past eight years in military and civilian aid.